Spark-plug tester.



A. D. PERKINS.

SPARK PLUG TESTER. APPLICATION FILED MAY [0, 1916.

1 $62,688 Patented. Apr. 9, 1918.

i to provide a device,

UNKTEU %TATE@ PATENT ALONSON D. PERKINS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

SPARK-PLUG TESTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 9, 1918.

Application filed May 10, 1916.. Serial No. 96,550.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALoNsoN D. PERKINS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York, county and State of New York, have invented a certain new and use ful Improvement. in Spark-Plug Testers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates more particularly to a class of devices adapted to be used in conjunction with spark plugs.

My invention has for its object primarily or tester designed to be employed for determining if the electric circuit of a spark plug when in use on a combustion engine has been accidentally broken without requiring the plug to be removed from the engine, thereby saving a great deal .of time and labor especially when engine trouble occurs in an automobile and the like. This is accomplished-mainly by providing two electric conductors which are mounted in a support with a peep-opening in a manner so that one of the corresponding ends thereof are arranged in spaced relation for providing a spark gap in the peep-opening, this end of one of the conductors being adjustable to vary the length of the gap, while the other ends of the conductors are spaced apart so. as to be disposed incontact with parts of the electricconducting members of the spark plug exteriorlyof the engine. 'VVhether' the p ug is active or dead is then rea'dil determined, accordingly whether a spar is or is not flashed in the gap between the conductors for observation in the peep-openin of the support; for if the circuit is open t rough the lug, a spark will jump the gap, and if the p ug is shorted or the circuit has been accidentally broken the gap will be free of the spark.

. A further object of the invention is to provide a spark plug tester of a simple, compact, and efiicient form for ready use in emergency, and which is susceptible of being made in various shapes and sizes.

A practical embodiment of the invention is representedin the accompanying drawing forminga part ofthis specification'in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views, the said invention being more fully described hereinafter, and then pointed out in the claims at the end of the description. In the drawing, Figure-1 is a side elevadevice embodying of thewire 15.

my invention, showing the manner of its use in conjunction with a spark plug.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken longitudinally through the center of the device, and

Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line IIIIII of Fig. 1.

The device, or spark plug tester has a sup port 10 made of vulcanized rubber, fiber, or other insulatin material, and the support may be in any desired shape and size, though the support is preferably formed with an elongated substantially rectangular body 11 to serve as a handle. Projecting from one end of the body 10 are two spaced arms, or fingers 12 and 13, and centrally through the body contiguous to these arms is a peepopening 14, while through the body between these arms may be a slot 15 communicating with the peep-opening for reducing the liability of the tester to crack to a minimum.

Embedded in the arms 12 and 13 as well as in the adjacent parts of the body 10 are two electric conductorsas 15 and 16. The conductors 15 and 1,6 are in the forms of metallic wires of lengths so that one end 0 the wire 15 extends, at 17, into the peepopening ll, while the corresponding en of the wire 16 terminates with a ring, as 18, having a threaded opening 18 therethrough, and this opening is on valineincnt with the free end of the part 17 of the conductor, or wire 15 which is disposed in the peep-opening 14. In register with the opening 18 is a transverse; passage 19 extending from the peep-opening 14, through the part of the handle, or support 10 in which the wire 16 is embedded,'and rotatable in this'passage as well as being threaded in the opening 18 of the ring 18 of the wire 16 is a screw, or pin 18?,adapted to be adjusted for one of its ends to be spaced in the peep-opening 14; toward and from the free end of the art 17 of the Wire 15. On the other end 0 the screw 18 is a be manually rotated,

as 19, 13 provided behead 18 to allow the screw tov tween the ends'of the conductors, or wires 1,5 and 16 in the peep-openingle, this spark.

gap being adaptable to be increased, or shortened in length by accordingly ad usting the screw 18 relative to the opposed end 7 The conductors, or'WiiS 15 and 16 are also of lengths so that their second ends, as 20 and 21, extend some distance beyond the free end of the arms 12 and 13 of the support, or handle 10', and as shown of the plu is too long or the second ends siderably spaced To use the device for testing whether a spark plug, as 22, when applied to a combustion engine, as 23, is active or dead, the device is disposed so that the end 21 of the Wire 16 will be in contact with the core, as 24, having onepole, as 25, of the plug and so that thesecond end 20 of the wire 15 will be in contact with the casing, or shell, as 26, on which the second pole 27 of the plug is mounted. If the plug is active by the electric circuittherethrough being closed, the circuit will pass through the conductor or Wires 15 and 16, and a spark will be flashed in the gap 19 between the ends 17 and 18 of the wires so as to be observed in the peep-opening 14. But if the pin is dead by reason of its circuit; being bro ten or otherwise impaired no spark will appear in the gap 19. llsloreover, by providing the screw 18 in conjunction with the wire 16 the proper length of the spark gap between the poles 25 and 27 of the spark plug may be determined, for instance if the spark gap too short it will be observec by the length of the spark in the gap 19 when the screw .18 isadjusted to and from the wire 15 in the peep-o ening 14. Inthis manner the spark gap of a plug may be accurately tested in emergency without requiring the consumption of time and labor to remove the plug therefrom.

In the foregoing description, I have embodied the preferred form of my invention, but I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself thereto, as I am aware that modifications may principle, or Sacrificipg any of the advantages of this invention, therefore reserve to myself the right to make such changes as fairly fall within the scope thereof.

.Having thus described my invention,

claim as new and desire to ters Patent 1. In a tester for spark gaps, a body of secure by Letbe made therein without departing from. the

insulating material provided with a peep opening therein, an electric conductor having the central portion thereof embedded within the tester body and with one end pro jecting into the peep opening and the other end projecting beyond the tester body, a second conductor having the central portion and one end thereof embedded within the tester body and having the other end projecting beyond the body adjacent to the second mentioned end of the first conductor, and electrically conductive means in contact with the embedded end of the second conductor and adapted to be adjusted toward and from the end of the first conductor which projects into the peep opening, whereby a spark gap of adjustable width is within the peep opening.

2. A device of the character described, comprising an insulated handle with a peep-' opening therethrough, and having two spaced pro ecting arms, two spaced metallic wires embedded in the handle and one in each of its arms, one end 01"? one wire being disposed in the peep-opening of the body, and the corresponding end of the second wire terminating with a ring having a threaded opening in opposed relation to this end of the first wire, and a screw in the threaded opening, adjustable to and from the end of the first wire so that a spark gap of various lengths may peep-opening, the second ends of both wires projecting in spaced relation from the arms of the handle so that the second end of one wire may be guided into contact with part of a spark plug leading from one of its poles and so that the second end of the other wire may be guided into contact with part of the plug leading from its second pole.

This specification signed and witnessed this 9th day of May, A, D. 1916.

ALONSON D; FERKINS.

Witnesses GEORGE F, BENTLEY, C. SHIEGLEY.

provided be provided in the i 

